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The most vulnerable households will be hit the hardest by the higher energy price cap, charities and campaigners have warned this morning.
Caroline Abrahams, director at the charity Age UK, says:
We know that today’s price cap increase is the shape of worse to come when the next price cap is announced, because by then the impact of the war in the Middle East will really be feeding through into prices.
Unfortunately, these elevated energy costs due to the war will hit just at the time when pensioners will need their heating the most, as we head into winter. This is why it is so important that the government puts together an effective plan now to help older people on low incomes to get through the coming winter unscathed. It’s imperative that we avoid a repeat of the 2024/5 winter, when millions of older people were cold in their own homes.
Behind every energy price rise are households whose direct debits are about to rise, families whose energy debt is harder to clear, and pensioners whose summer is already overshadowed by the winter ahead. Meanwhile, the energy industry has posted more than £3 billion in profits from its UK operations in the first three months of 2026.
With energy costs rising over the summer, any chance households had to reduce energy debts or build up reserves before the winter heating season will be wiped out.
As always, the most vulnerable will bear the brunt. Low-income households are stuck on this rollercoaster of global energy prices. For them this is not a one-off price increase. It is an unrelenting pressure that builds and builds and builds, resulting in unprecedented numbers owing around £5.5 billion in energy debt and rationing their energy usage.
With another tough winter coming, and bills expected to stay high, now is the time for the government to set out targeted interventions to help those on the lowest incomes afford their energy and to clear their debt. The government can also do more to streamline referral routes for fuel poverty support for both households with young children and those with serious health conditions.
It will depend to a large extent on what happens in the Middle East and the progress of any measures to try and get a peace deal and then the speed with which the straits reopen and how quickly the market recovers, but it is unfortunately now looking like a more long term disruption to markets than we might originally have hoped.
…It is a time where it gives people an opportunity to try and prepare for what may be coming in the winter and they might do that by trying to fix in the market for example, and try and insulate them against some of that volatility.
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